The poor girl from the 1970s was forced to kiss by the damp educated youth.

That evening, the aroma of meat wafted from every household in the village.

Chen Zhi cooked braised pig's ears and a lean pork and mustard green soup. Just as they were eating, Shi Xin arrived.

Shi Xin hurriedly pushed open the door and went straight to Chen Zhi's house. As soon as he entered, he asked, "Are your three pigs still there?"

Chen Zhi nodded. "Yes, I am."

"That's good." Shi Xin plopped down, and Chen Zhi poured him a cup of hot water, then took out a bowl and served him a bowl of rice. "Brother, have some with us."

Shi Xin arrived in a hurry and had indeed never eaten before. Without any ceremony, he took the chopsticks and started eating.

"Don't kill those three pigs, give them to me, I'll sell them," Shi Xin said while eating.

Chen Zhi was taken aback. "Why?"

Shi Xin: "Big brother will help you make big money."

Chen Zhi knew pork was expensive, especially during the Lunar New Year, when it would be even more expensive on the black market. "But if we don't slaughter them, what will we eat?"

"I'll send you half a pig later. Don't kill yours, it'll fetch a higher price." Shi Xin said, placing a dusty cloth bag on the table. "The money from the last sale of the preserved fish is for your share."

Chen Zhi took it, opened it, and saw that there were ten bundles of ten-yuan notes inside, which was a thousand yuan, plus some loose change.

She was somewhat surprised, "You sold so many?"

"That's right, and that doesn't even include the gifts. Now that our cured fish is famous, many people know that our fish is delicious and are scrambling to buy it. The fish we took away last time are already being smoked, and they'll be ready to sell in a few days. I also plan to make your three pigs into smoked cured meat and sell them in gift boxes. There are only a few days left until the New Year, so we'll kill them tonight, marinate them for three days, and then start smoking them from morning till night. Five or six days should be enough," Shi Xin said, revealing his plans.

Chen Zhi was speechless; she was also somewhat tempted.

This is the first time she has ever earned so much money.

That evening, Chen Zhi and Shi Xin put the pigs into pig cages and loaded them onto the truck.

Shi Xin: "Sister-in-law, that pig of yours must weigh at least 300 jin (150 kg). How did you raise it?"

Chen Zhi: "The rice bran you sent, plus the cabbage I grew."

Shi Xin: "..."

You think you can fool others with that? Do you think I'd believe you, brother?

Chen Zhi didn't care whether he believed it or not; it was the truth.

Shi Xin: "I'll bring you some pork in a couple of days, and I'll also take the fish from your kitchen with me."

Chen Zhi had no objections; she planned to explore the underground river again tomorrow.

Shi Xin drove the car away. Chen Zhi felt like she had forgotten something, but she couldn't remember it right away. Oh well, she decided not to think about it anymore.

Chen Zhi was still a little unaccustomed to not having to feed the pigs on the second day.

The hen in the house successfully hatched twenty-two chicks, which chirped incessantly all day long. They were fluffy, chubby, and had short little legs. They especially liked to circle around Chen Zhi, and Chen Zhi almost stepped on them several times.

Chen Zhi mixed chicken feed for them and spread straw in the yard for them to play in.

After finishing these tasks, she went into the mountains.

There were many people chopping firewood in the mountains, and they all came in groups. You could hear their voices echoing through the mountains from time to time.

Chen Zhi avoided the people, entered the cave, took off her coat, and slithered into the water like a nimble snake.

With plenty of time this time, she plans to travel to even more distant places.

Chen Zhi used to go with the current, but this time she planned to go against the current, even if it took some effort.

She swam fast, as if on flat ground, and easily overtook the fish.

After swimming for an unknown amount of time, the river water gradually warmed up and the light became brighter. Chen Zhi couldn't help but feel excited. Could she have swum to another city?

Chen Zhi accelerated again, passed through a narrow opening, and suddenly the view opened up before her.

She burst out of the water with a splash, the warm sunlight shining on her face, the shimmering water stretching as far as the eye could see, making it hard for her to open her eyes.

This is not a city; it is still in the mountains and forests.

Before her lay a lake that seemed to stretch to the horizon, with mountains and vegetation on either side.

Unlike Sandong Village, this place is warm, the vegetation in the water is lush, and there are more fish here.

Is nobody here?

Chen Zhi swam towards the shore and soon reached the shore.

The vegetation was tall and lush, with no trace of human activity.

Chen Zhi smelled the air; it was fresh, clean, and so pleasant that she couldn't help but want to immerse herself in it. She then pricked up her ears and listened carefully. Besides the chirping of insects and birds, there were also the roars of wild animals, which sounded quite ferocious.

Chen Zhi became interested and decided to take a walk around the lake, but after she had only taken a few steps, something suddenly pounced on her from the woods.

Their speed was so fast that they were no slower than hers!

What is this thing?!

Chen Zhi only had time to lean back, narrowly avoiding the opponent's attack.

However, the opponent failed in their first attack and turned around to charge back.

Chen Zhi tossed the sack in her hand aside and turned to greet him.

In the blink of an eye, she and her opponent had exchanged over a hundred blows.

During this process, Chen Zhi also saw the other party's appearance clearly. It looked a bit like a monkey, but it was bigger, had darker fur, and looked more like a human than a monkey.

Could it be a gorilla?

But she had never seen a gorilla.

I have heard from the elders that there is a kind of ghost in the mountains called Xiaomei.

Chen Zhi instinctively knew that this was the one in front of her.

She had just arrived when the other party appeared. It was possible that, like the previous ones, this demon coveted her body and treated it as a potent tonic.

Want to eat her?

You have to be prepared to be eaten by her!

For the first time, Chen Zhi encountered an evenly matched opponent. The opponent was no weaker than her in terms of speed and strength, and even in terms of agility, the opponent was superior to her.

However, she is not without her advantages; she recovers quickly, especially her wounds heal rapidly.

But the demon is different; it doesn't have that advantage.

Therefore, Chen Zhi adopted the most insane fighting style, inflicting 800 damage on the enemy while losing 1,000 of his own.

The lush forests were quickly transformed beyond recognition, startling countless birds and beasts.

Chen Zhi and Xiao Mei fought from noon until the sun began to set. Finally, before the sun went down, the tall Xiao Mei fell down. Chen Zhi dug out its inner core with his bare hands, and swallowed it without even looking at it.

The strong smell of blood and the powerful energy exploded within my body.

Chen Zhi groaned, took a step back, and fell to the ground.

After a while, she recovered and murmured, "It's a bit inferior to that white dragon."

Seeing that it was getting late, Chen Zhi jumped into the water with a splash and discovered that there were many fish in the lake, densely packed together, an alarming number. She wondered if these fish were raised by the demon, perhaps as its food reserves?

Besides the demons, are there any other mountain spirits or monsters here?

Chen Zhi plans to come back to visit after she has recovered in a couple of days.

Chen Zhi returned home late at night. This time, she didn't take too much; she only bought six bags of fish and brought them all back at once, avoiding the hassle of going back and forth.

I'm just a little tired.

She boiled water and took a bath, ignoring her rumbling stomach, and fell asleep as soon as she lay down on the bed.

But just as she fell asleep, a feeling of palpitation came from the depths of her soul, and she was immediately startled awake.

What is that?

Chen Zhi didn't bother to put on shoes and went out barefoot.

In the courtyard, a white fox was staring intently at her.

What a huge fox!

This was Chen Zhi's first reaction.

This fox was taller than her when it stood up, its body was comparable to that of a giant wolf, and its white fur was without a single stray hair; it was extremely beautiful.

Needless to say, this is another monster that has become a spirit.

"Did you kill the demon?" it asked in human language.

Chen Zhi was startled, goosebumps rose on her skin, it could actually talk.

"Don't try to deny it, I followed the scent," it said.

Chen Zhi: "It tried to kill me, but I killed it."

"Then you should die too."

The fox brandished its claws and lunged at Chen Zhi.

Chen Zhi felt a sharp pain in her shoulder, where four deep wounds were visible, exposing the bone.

This fox is stronger than that demon.

But she wasn't one to be trifled with either.

In the educated youth settlement, Zhao Jinbao suddenly opened his eyes. There was movement on the other side. Could it be that Brother Shi from Chen Zhi's house had come to take things from her again?

Zhao Jinbao wanted to go out and take a look, but he was afraid that his sudden appearance would be inappropriate.

They came sneaking over in the middle of the night; they definitely didn't want anyone to know.

Zhao Jinbao suppressed his curiosity and ultimately did not get up.

The sounds from the other side grew louder and louder, like the sound of heavy objects hitting the ground, which piqued his curiosity and made him extremely curious.

The sound continued until the village roosters crowed and the sky began to lighten.

Zhao Jinbao then yawned and drifted off to sleep.

He would ask Chen Zhi again after dawn.

In Chen Zhi's yard, the white fox lay on the ground, trapped by transparent, crystal-green "tree branches," while the owner of the "tree branches" held its head, biting its neck and desperately sucking its blood.

The fox never expected that this was not a human, but a wood spirit!

When did the Wood Spirit become so powerful?

The fox hadn't figured this out until its consciousness completely dissipated.

Chen Zhi didn't want to drink the fox's blood; the taste was really bad. But she was forced into a corner. This fox was too powerful. If she didn't "eat" it, she wouldn't have the strength to fight it off.

And then there was that "tree branch." At the time, she only wanted to tie the fox's four paws, and in that critical moment, the energy within her body transformed into the shape of a tree branch.

The branch got tangled in the fox's hair, but she knew it wouldn't last long.

"Eating" the fox is her only way to survive.

To survive, she was willing to risk everything.

Chen Zhi let out a burp, then peeled off the fox's inner core, stuffed it into his mouth without even looking at it, and swallowed it.

Finally, she carried the fox's carcass into the storeroom, locked the doors and windows, and went back to her room to sleep.

Blood smeared at the corner of her mouth, her clothes torn to shreds by sharp claws, and she had hundreds of wounds all over her body. But she didn't have time to treat them before collapsing onto the bed and losing consciousness in an instant.

She slept from dusk till dawn, until the sun went down in the evening, when Zhao Jinbao woke her up.

Chen Zhi opened her eyes groggily, then groggily went to open the door and walked outside.

Zhao Jinbao was shocked to see her covered in blood. "What happened to you?"

Chen Zhi blinked, seemingly more awake. She glanced down at her barely clothed self, then turned and went back into the house. "I'm going to change my clothes."

Ten minutes later, Chen Zhi came out wearing clean clothes.

Zhao Jinbao: "Why are you covered in blood? Are you injured? How serious is it?"

Chen Zhi shook her head. "It's alright."

Zhao Jinbao was still worried. His clothes were covered in blood. How could he be alright?

But Chen Zhi seemed unwilling to discuss it further, so he could only temporarily set aside his worries and asked, "Was the commotion last night a fight?"

Chen Zhi: "Yeah, I fought with something for most of the night."

Zhao Jinbao immediately sensed the unusual tone in the voice, "Something? Not human?"

Chen Zhi didn't hide anything, "Yes."

Zhao Jinbao fell silent. He suddenly realized that he was very far away from Chen Zhi. He couldn't enter Chen Zhi's world. When Chen Zhi was in danger, he didn't even have the ability to protect her.